pumpkinstrokemarrow

Thinking of pot boilers, was talking to someone in TB the other night. He had been to a concert by either Simon or Garfunkel recently, singing with a four peice band as backup. Presumably he was asked to do all his old favourites from 40 years ago. I can imagine that if you have had success of that sort, you must get really cheesed off having to keep trotting it out when you have moved on. It might bring home the bacon (to change the metaphor) and it might do you good to hear those clapping hands again - but going over old ground - which you might well have preferred to have done slightly differantly - must cheese. I believe Beethoven was not too keen on some of his early but popular works. Wanted them expunged from the canon! And Ian Fleming and Arthur C-D both got well fed up with the golden geese that they had invented. They felt taken over by their creations. Presumably Mrs Potter must feel the same in spades although I have never heard of her opining on the subject.

Spent part of today helping with a clear out of a house which had been continuously occupied by the same couple for a very long time - maybe sixty years with the odd gap while they were abroad. Scary how little of interest to others one accumulates in that time. But lots of stuff which one doesn't get rid of for one reason or another; perhaps of sentimental value for one reason or another - but not to anybody else. Perhaps one just gets too old to care enough to do anything about it. I thought on the way back that it would be one of the few advantages of having a big house (the desire for which, in my case, faded with my twenties): one could have glass topped display cabinets in reception rooms - like those one has in museums - in which you display the cleaned up memorabilia from one's ancestors. In this case the tools of the trade of a naval electrical articifer. Beautiful bits of engineering - but which are now near useless. I think Prince Albert went in for this sort of thing - certainly with geological specimens he and his children picked up from beaches on holidays - but then he could afford the space. He also had the wit to label them. We have been collecting 10 pound lumps of stone from around the country for some time but can now remember where very few of them came from.

In the same way, it always grieves me to see an IBM golf ball typewriter going for £5 in a car boot sale. Wonderfull bits of engineering - but can you find house room for 50 pounds of it?Would one ever use it, even just to make some point?

All of which brings me on to an interesting memory lapse. Today, I conflated two vists to the theatre and was completely convinced that visit A happened on the date of visit B. I was sure that I was right. Not the shadow of a possibility that the BH could be right. However, this did not work with various other facts which I did manage to get right and eventually with the aid of a diary the two visits were made two again. And these visits were both within the last month.

Which makes it suprising that the BH has trusted me with one of her recipes for today's evening meal. Me doing my recipes is one thing, but doing hers is quite another. Particularly since this lentil and smoked sausage recipe is fairly close to the lentil soup that I usually make. I could easily get confused.